On March 9, 2021 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will no longer enforce the Public Charge rule that originally took effect on February 24, 2020. Based on a number of recent U.S. Court of Appeals...more
On March 2, 2021, the Department of State issued updated guidance on the National Interest Exception (NIE) for the COVID-related travel ban to the United States from individuals who are in the Schengen Area, the U.K. or...more
On March 20, 2020 DHS announced that it would defer for a 60 day period the physical presence requirement to review the employee’s identity and employment authorization documents in order to complete Form I-9, Employment...more
Although technically part of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) since July 1, 1997, Hong Kong has had special status recognition from the US government. This has meant it is treated more favorably for certain immigration...more
7/22/2020
/ China ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Green Cards ,
Hong Kong ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Permanent Residence Cards ,
Subject Access Request (SAR) ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Visas
On July 16, the United States and Canada mutually agreed to restrict “non-essential” travel for an additional 30 days across our shared border.
It is important to emphasize that the travel restriction only applies to...more
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous travel bans and “shelter in place” orders which have been recently announced, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will extend...more
Anyone who works in legal or HR and handles work authorizations for their employees will agree that hiring foreign nationals or international transfers has become much more difficult under the current administration and its...more
12/6/2019
/ Buy America ,
Domestic Hiring Policy ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Visas
According to the State Department August Visa Bulletin, the Employment Based First Preference Category (EB-1) Final Action Dates for “Priority Workers” will retrogress for the month of August 2018. Priority Workers include...more
It appears that the Republican controlled Congress and the Trump Administration cannot get anything done on the contentious issues of immigration.
Right now, a slight bi-partisan majority in the Senate wants to provide a...more
This is a follow-up to the Supreme Court’s decision on June 26, 2017 which allowed the Trump Administration’s Travel Ban affecting nationals of the six designated Muslim-majority countries to be partially implemented until...more
7/24/2017
/ Bona Fide Relationship Test ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Immigration Reform ,
International Travel ,
Refugees ,
SCOTUS ,
Sponsors ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
Trump v Hawaii ,
Trump v International Refugee Assistance Project ,
Visas
Effective upon publication by the Federal Register on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has authorized the one-time issuance of an additional 15,000 H-2B visas for Temporary Nonagricultural...more
On October 1, 2015, the US Department of State will begin accepting requests to register for the 2017 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2017), also known as the Green Card Lottery. The Diversity Lottery Program provides a...more
The Department of State (DOS) has revised certain nonimmigrant and immigrant visa fees. DOS has adjusted the visa fees in the following categories...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) Directorate has recently begun implementation of an L-1 site inspection program in response to an August 2013 report released by...more
On April 5, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received more than enough H-1B petitions to meet the numerical limit for fiscal year 2014 cap-subject H-1B visas, which includes both...more